Lads' mags in children's sight: the game is ON!

After canvassing your views, we're extending Let Girls Be Girls to cover the issue of lads' mags on display where children can see them in newsagents, supermarkets, stationers and petrol stations. Have a look at our press release and survey results here. We're contacting all the major retailers to ask them to sign up, and will keep you posted about how that goes. If you'd like to cull some copy from the press release to compose your own letter to your local independent newsagent, please feel free, and post here to let us know what you've done.

Some of the retailers have asked us for examples of individual stores that are presenting problems, so if you've seen material inappropriately displayed in a specific branch, again, please post here and we'll pass the information on.

I'm astonished that a certain element of society, pressure groups and web forums have taken this approach, a few pointers and facts.

A,No one is forced to view these mags.B,Women choose this career the same way men do.C,Try reducating children instead of demonising them.

I bet parents won't boycott holiday destinations which women openly walk with scantly clad bikini's, I'm glad the likes of Tesco and WH Smith carry on regardless and improved intelligence, understanding its not glorifying women or men for that fact.

Hey, the e-petition for modesty covers has expired!! I am sure if more people knew about it they would have signed! Can anything like this run again? The number of signatures was disappointing low on the last one when it closed!

Hello! If this is the right place to give feedback on the uptake of the 'Let Girls Be Girls' campaign, then I can certainly say that if The Co-operative have signed up, their outlet on Danebury Avenue, Roehampton is not abiding by any commitment to keep Zoo, etc and the cheap nasty dailies out of sight. Having emailed The Co-operative myself a few months ago, complaining about the magazines etc, I was assured by their PR person that regular checks are carried out. From what I have seen, I doubt it. If it is possible for those running the 'Let Girls Be Girls' Campaign to reiterate the point with the Co-operative, this would be helpful! Thanks!

Not sure how many of you are uk based, but saw there's a UK E-petition to make a law for 'modesty covers' on magazines with sexually explicit material on the front cover, so that toddlers don't see this rubbish. If it reaches 100,000 signatures (early days lol) it'll trigger a debate in the house of commons to talk about it.

I couldn't agree more with LadyBlahBlah; explicit men's (boys?) mags should not be a part of the offering of supermarkets. In the meantime, having just become aware of this campaign, I'll be keeping an eye on my local Sainsbury's and any others I visit.

The reason I just joined MumsNet and noticed this is that I was looking for information about the women in Tonbridge who got WH smith to remove their 'Women's Fiction' labels on book shelves. I noticed recently that Sainsbury's categorise their mags according to things like Men's Lifestyle, Women's Interests, and so on. Presumably, they don't allow women to buy magazines about cars, angling, or any other men-only pursuits!

I'm about to write to the management about this, heartened by the success of the Tonbridge Two. I'll keep you posted.

My local morrisons ovisously has taken no notice of this pledge when doing up there store as not only was the lads mags at childs eye view but also had no modesty covers over them. I pointed this out in a complaint to member of staff but i am sure nothing will be done about the matter.

Although SAINSBURYS have claimed to sign up to this - my local store in WEYBRIDGE SURREY has NUTS and ZOO at floor level in full view of children. I have complained about this at least 10 times, ie every time I have been in - both instore and to H.O. and nothing has been done.

Tesco in Douglas, Isle of Man, keeps it's stock of Nuts, Zoo etc on a high shelf but on a back wall so as you turn the corner, you can see the the contents of the top shelf even if you're 2 ft tall. Not good enough me thinks.

I have concerns about the free Sport magazine that is given out on a Friday as it contains a centrefold type double page of a virtually naked girl in a sexual pose. Being a free magazine about sport, many young boys pick it up, either at point of issue, or after someone has discarded it on trains/buses. I'm sure the magazine would say that their target readers are adult, but by the very nature of it being free, many children read it too. A magazine this freely available to children should not be allowed to contain objectifying pictures, who can I write to about it, and would you be able to inform your supporters about it as being a sport based magazine, I doubt many women are aware of the centrefold aspect of it!

Mumsnet, what are you doing to check that these retailers are keeping their commitments? I was in Asda just the other day and there was no attempt to hide the front covers of the lad's mags which held their usual pride of place at the eye-level of a 12-year old .

I have seen screens being used in my local BP which definitely weren't there before.

i watched all three programs in the series and thought it was really good but maybe should have been seperated into 2 shows, one for sex education the other for parents. but it was good how it covered inapropriate childrens clothing, the inappropriate placement of lads mags in some stores still and music channels-which is another one of my major concerns, that last episode was horrible to watch thinking that alot of children would have seen those types of music videos, its disgusting. but u can put a lock on things like that on sky and things. i think music videos though, alot of them have just become porn, just another type of porn, great, no imagination in the video then and not everyone wants to see it. theyre not taking women, children and gay men into consideration, maybe not everyone wants the same things all the time and children should deff be protected from it all in all ways possible preferably.

i would advise anyone who missed the program-the sex education program with the stop pimping our kids campagne, to catch up on 4od when its available, it should be now. and they are doing a review of things at some point in the next series.

Interesting about the split personality WHS policy making, and can see your frustration/ anger with the TV people as your experience with retailers gives you insight they will never get as theirs is a transitory interest...

WH Smiths have a reputation for constantly getting it wrong. No better example than a recent copy approval matter for DIVA where we were not allowed to say Lesbians Do It Best on a shelf-talker and it was suggested we replace the L word with "Girls" !!!! Censorship without sensitivity and more likely to get customer complaints.

I fully get the point of C4's program, but as someone who has had to deal with the decisions and policies of WH Smiths for years, including the fact that their travel points and high street branches have different policies and central decision making/approval processes (something the programmers weren't aware of). Fact is WH Smith High Street are probably fully compliant but WH Smith travel probably aren't. Looks to me like CH4 got their quote from WH Smith High St and not their Travel HQ who govern station stores like the one in Euston!

I think the issues are far more clear cut - in previous series on C4 there have been discussions concerning how teens are far more familiar with porn than most of their parents will admit to and as a result, the educational aspects of how to protect against STIs and pregnancy are pushed a bit harder, because not all will 'rebel against peer pressure' and some get dragged into activities they might not really feel ready for... or have picked up poor info from chats with friends, or simply misunderstood some aspects of protecting themselves.

while on the other hand, the anti-lads mags, suggestive clothing, seems to be a concern for many (and perhaps in particular, those with pre-teenage children, as young as 4 or 5, because those children will often be with a parent on shopping trips and therefore may be affected by indiscriminate shelf use for 'adult' and lads mags (at least in smaller shops or petrol stations, perhaps not so much in the larger chains, at least as far as 'adult' mags).

Netywork Guy - many thanks. We have been through many stages of cover approval with the big supermarkets and yet at the same time encouraged to deliver bare-chested guys, naked and Sex issues as we are informed by our distributors these sell the best! In doing these themed issues we have to adhere to strict cover guidelines with WH Smiths and Tesco in particular leading on this. Our last Naked issue had a very tasteful waist up shot of a HollyOaks actor on the cover and we raised funds for THT with this issue. (Suspect it was Attitude's naked issue you saw in ASDA). I was outraged that last nights programme chose to tar us with the same brush with our Aidan/X Factor special issuePlus ca change! In the past we have asked to be positioned near Men's Health as our covers are no more explict than these, but this is not deemed acceptable and we are considered a category in between Men's Health and the Lads mags called "gay lifestyle". DIVA magazine has a whole other challenge in being lost in amongst the women's interest mags next to parenting, puzzles and ethic press. I believe our recent sex issue also caused some moral panic amongst Mumsnet users, despite adhering to content guidelines of the retailers. It is hoped that our body positive/real women issue will have had the reverse effect but I doubt that even got noticed!